McLaren’s British driver Lando Norris won the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix for the third triumph of the season and career. The 24-year-old from Bristol beat reigning world champion Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by more than 20 seconds at the Marina Bay track today to reduce his lead at the championship to 52 points. Another McLaren pilot, Oscar Piastri, finished third.
Norris dominated the night race in Singapore in start-finish style. In the end, although he lost the bonus point for the fastest lap set by Daniel Ricciardo of Racing Bulls, he still continued this year’s successes in Miami and the Netherlands. He stood on the podium for the third time in the last four races. McLaren also extended their Constructors’ Cup lead over Red Bull to 41 points.
“It was an amazing race. I was often close to the wall, but otherwise I think I was in control. The car was amazing. I could push it, we flew the whole race and in the end I even drove a bit to relax,” he said after finish line in front of the Norris TV cameras. “Perhaps there was no need to keep pedaling on it. But I didn’t want to finish with a lead of one second. I wanted to have as big a lead as possible,” added Norris.
Verstappen has not won in the eighth race in a row. Nevertheless, he minimized the losses with the second place and thanked Ricciardo on the radio for eliminating Norris’s attempt to get a premium point.
“It was such a lonely race. I tried to do my best and at the end I was already driving my pace. The first part was a bit difficult also because of the tire degradation. It was better in the second. We knew we were going to struggle a bit here ,” said Verstappen. “We have to keep improving and try to turn it around a little bit. We don’t want to be driving behind someone all the time. But we’ll see how it goes,” said Verstappen.
Qualifying winner Norris held the lead from the start ahead of Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, who completed his 350th race in F1. Norris already had a lead of over ten seconds in the 16th lap and was increasing the blockbuster. Two laps later, Hamilton pitted for new tires and dropped out of the top ten.
On lap 29, Norris had light contact with the wall and reported a damaged front wing. Two laps later he went to the mechanics for new tires. However, he did not receive a new wing and the engineers reported to him that the damage was not major.
After Verstappen’s stop, Piastri, who was the last to enter the pits on the 39th lap, moved into second place. The strategy paid off for the Australian, after returning to the track he overtook Hamilton and later his teammate George Russell on the fresh compound.
Charles Leclerc from Ferrari also caught up to Russell in the end. Although the Monacan kept close in the closing laps, he was unable to attack and finished fifth. His team-mate Carlos Sainz, making his jubilee 200th start in F1, finished the race in seventh place.
The World Championship continues on October 20 with the US Grand Prix.
Source: www.tyden.cz
